Allowing discouragement to encourage you

How discouragement can encourage you

I use a lot of my personal experiences as mentoring/teachable moments and I want to encourage you through my own personal discouragement. I was having a conversation with someone who I love and who's opinion and advice I respect. I was telling them about a decision that I was about to make and their reply discouraged me. I don't think that was their intent, but immediately the spirit of offense came upon me. I had to step away from the conversation to go pray. My prayer time was quick, under 5 minutes but God gave me peace when He said "People in all of their well meaning will never fully, 100% understand the vision, assignment, destiny, and purpose I gave to YOU. They are only responsible for understanding what I gave to them so don't allow their voice to be bigger than mine." This blessed me!! I walked away from prayer feeling confident in the decision that I was about to make. What do I want you to learn from this? That people will not 100% get what God is telling you to do and their feedback and opinions may sometimes be discouraging but you have to be confident in who God is, confident in what He has told you to do, and confident in His ability to get it done through you. This does not mean that people don't mean you well. This does not mean that they are "hating" on you or don't want to see you living out your purpose. It simply means that they do not fully understand your assignment and that is okay. As long as you are confident that you heard from God, then you should keep on, keeping on. This does not mean that you can't take advice, opinions, or suggestions from others. God uses people to accomplish His purpose. Just always let God's voice be the ruling voice in your life and when you do this, even if you feel moments of discouragement it won't last. Grace and Peace to you, Pamela D. Smith